Coming In May--A Celebration of Superman

Not only is May the 70th anniversary of Superman, but it's also the 50th anniversary of the Silver Age Superman. In 1958, Mort Weissinger took over responsibilty for the Superman family of magazines. This resulted in a remarkably different character than had been the case in the Golden Age comics or the TV or radio series. It is an amazing saga that has stood the test of time, and I am going to attempt to take a look at key events, people and places that made the Silver Age Superman such a delight to read.

To start, perhaps I had better have a little discussion of the Golden Age Superman. The origin is well-known--Krypton exploding, Jor-El and Lara sending their baby off to Earth, where he is raised by the Kents. The early Superman stories, reflecting somewhat the pulp fiction novels of the time, were pretty gritty. Remember, at this time the concept of comic books as entertainment for adolescent boys had not yet taken hold. But over time, the sheer power of Superman necessitated a change.

The change was handled differently in the comics versus the radio show. In the comics, the character and his adventures took on a more whimsical tone. Oh, Superman had some serious villains that he foiled, but he had a lot of more buffoonish enemies as well: Wolfingham,, the Toyman, the Prankster and Mr Mxyztplk for example. In the radio show, which was hugely influential, the series over time developed into "Clark Kent, Detective", with Superman often reduced to mop-up work.

This came about simply because the character was far too swift and strong. Nobody could compete against him physically and so they were forced to rely on guile and cunning. Even Luthor was usually portrayed as operating behind the scenes; in many Golden Age and early Silver Age stories he is not shown until the last page.

The TV show, which was in its final year in 1958, was somewhat similar to the radio show, with Clark doing all the brainwork, and Supes showing up at the end to show off his abilities and corral the villains.

This was the Superman that Weissinger inherited. What he did with the character starting in 1958 was historic:

1. Introduced new major and minor characters. Supergirl, the Legion of Superheroes, Lucy Lane, Pete Ross, etc., all made their first appearances early in the Silver Age.

2. Introduced new locales: Kandor, Krypton (not technically a new locale, but it was rarely used as the setting for a story before the Silver Age), the future, outer space, the Fortress of Solitude, the Phantom Zone, etc.

3. Added new villains to the roster (Brainiac), while developing the characters of older ones (Luthor) as well as resuscitating defunct ones (the renamed Mxyzptlk).

4. Developed Lois Lane into a character who could sustain her own comic.

5. Added continuity between stories, so that characters and relationships would evolve over time.

6. Added letters columns to create a sense of community between Superman fans.

7. Developed new weaknesses for Superman, creating more of a balance between the Man of Steel and his enemies.

I hope you enjoy this month-long project!

Number 301

Lay off my roof, goof!

Here's a funny Wolverton strip from Daredevil Comics #22, February 1944. Can it really be that I haven't posted a Basil Wolverton strip since Pappy's #3? To rectify the situation, Jason, here's a hip strip to make you flip!

Number 300

Calling all Video Rangers!

To celebrate Pappy's #300 I'm bringing you two stories drawn by George Evans from Captain Video #1, a Fawcett comic from 1951. Evans went on to comic book glory with his stint at EC Comics. Fawcett stopped publishing comics in 1953. Captain Video lasted six issues as a comic book, and vanished from the airwaves as the network carrying his adventures went out of business in 1955.

To read some background on the TV program and the DuMont Network where it appeared, read this article. The show had its fans in the larger Eastern U.S. markets where it was carried. In the American hinterlands where I was raised, we had no idea it existed except for the Fawcett comic book and the great parody by Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis in Mad #15.

The Secret of Sun City

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The Creatures of Doom!

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Number 299

Billy and Bonny Bee to the rescue!

From New Funnies #79, September, 1943, comes this excellent 6-page strip by Frank Thomas.

As I explained the last time I posted a Billy and Bonny Bee story, the Frank Thomas who drew these characters was not the same Frank Thomas who was one of the Nine Old Men at Disney. But there is some sort of Disney connection: Billy and Bonny appear to be influenced by Disney's Bucky Bug. In my last "Billy and Bonny" posting I called it a funny animal strip, but "funny insects" is a sub-genre of "funny animals." A really small one. Get it? Insects, small? Oh well…maybe you had to be there.

Number 298

Ghost Rider and The Haunted Tomb

Ghost Rider makes an appearance in this blog after several months. Last time I posted a Ghost Rider story was "League of the Living Dead." "The Haunted Tomb" is the cover story for Ghost Rider #7, from 1952, written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Dick Ayers and his cousin/assistant Ernie Bache. Love the cover: big snake and skulls. Yow. A Doc Wertham special!

The pencil checkmarks in some of the panels mean this particular copy is from the Cosmic Aeroplane collection, which turned up in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the late 1970s. The man who owned the comics had bought them off the stands from 1939 until his death in 1961. Several of the comics used in this blog have come from that collection, including all four issues of Jet by Bob Powell.

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Say what?

It's nice that some folks can keep it in the family!

Number 297

Pussycat wins!

What a babe! With a body like this Pussycat isn't built for speed, but she wins anyway. With guys especially. With protests over the upcoming Beijing Olympics headlines the past few weeks it's time to run an Olympics related story, and this is the only one I have. It's a funny Bill Ward story from the only issue of Pussycat, published by Marvel Comics in 1968.

There's another Pussycat strip by Ward in Pappy's #148.

The Twelve. Volume 1. Number 1

The Twelve. Volume 1. Number 1
March 2008 | 26 pages | PDF | 18.2MB

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50 Years Ago--Action Comics #239

This is one of those goofy covers that you have to laugh at. "No comment?" That's what Mafia members were saying to reporters around this time.

What happens in the story is that a scientist is experimenting with transmutation, changing one element into another. One of the elements he's experimenting with is Kryptonite. When Superman sees the machine is about to explode he carries it into space, where the blast can't hurt anybody. Unfortunately because of the Kryptonite it scars him in some way (we can't see how until later in the story). He starts wearing bandages and later an iron mask to cover his face. This encourages crazy speculation:



Somehow Perry fails to notice that this wild story comes from his own paper. Of course it's pretty obvious that somebody forgot to tell Wayne Boring to label the newspaper with one of the Planet's competitors. Meanwhile Lois is getting suspicious because Clark hasn't shown up at the office. When he does arrive, though, he only has a small bandaid in the middle of his forehead. Surely this can't be the scarring that caused Superman to hide his face?

But it is. You see, earlier in the story Perry White had given his reporters new press cards:



And the explosion had pitted Superman's face with the words "Clark Kent". He tries various methods to get rid of the words, including diving into lava and letting himself be hit by a lightning bolt, but neither worked. Finally he creates an atomic explosion and that does the trick.

The Congo Bill story is rather interesting, since it concerns an attempt by the US to launch a satellite into space (from Africa). This appears to have been inspired by the launching of Sputnik, in October 1957 (this is the April, 1958 issue of Action). Congo Bill and Janu, the Jungle boy, are pressed into labor building a pyramid, but it turns out that the point of the pyramid is just to point the way to the launch site, which had been concealed with netting. Fortunately Congo Bill spoils the plot.

The Tommy Tomorrow story concerns a time capsule from 1958 (TT's stories were set 100 years in the future, in 2058) that contains toys from that era. Tommy decides to use them to defeat some space pirates. There's a mention of Sputnik here:

Number 296

Foley of the Fighting 5th

You won't see a lot of Wild West-type comics on Pappy's cuz Pappy don't like 'em. Most of them, anyway; there are a few I like. Tom Gill's Lone Ranger and Dick Ayers' Ghost Rider spring to mind. I also like some of the DC Western comics, and I'll show you a couple as we ride along the dusty trail. I like this one from All-American Western #104, November 1948, because of the early Joe Kubert art. I like Joe's 1940s art but there are flaws, like the bad figure drawing on the bottom of page 4. John Giunta did the inking.

All-American Western, a continuation of All-American Comics, went for 24 issues, then became All-American Men Of War. In its war incarnation it lasted a lot longer than it did in its Western phase. This "Foley" strip is one of the stories in tear sheet form, cut out of the original comic books by a man who liked certain artists. The vandal would clip those stories and throw the rest of the book away. I got them over 25 years ago, hundreds of pages of loose tear sheets in a big box, and put them together like puzzles. It was probably that task that finally convinced me to wear glasses.

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Karswell, of The Horrors Of It All is posting a Zebra story today. He asked if I had any, and what I have is another of those crumbling stories cut from comics. The pages are much worse than the Foley story. They've disintegrated, as you can see, but the story is understandable…just screwy. John Doyle, the lawyer who is the Zebra, won't show up in any John Grisham novels. Considering how he represents this client I'm surprised he wasn't disbarred. The story, "The Phantom Philtre," was the last Zebra story, is from Green Hornet Comics #30, May-June, 1946, and is drawn by Bob Fujitani.

Number 295

Melvin Monster and Crazy Klutch

The Stanley Stories website has a funny Melvin Monster story from Melvin Monster #3. The lead-in page also tells of Stanley's lifelong battle with depression, which probably affected his themes and storytelling. He refused to seek treatment, instead letting his depressive episodes run their course. In that way he was like Charles Schulz, who worked out his depression in his comic strips for 50 years, refusing treatment because he thought it would take away his gift.

Ain't it funny how funny people can be so sad?

The Melvin Monster stories were written and drawn by Stanley, and they have a dark side to them. Melvin's parents threaten to turn him over to a bogeyman. As we find out in the story from Melvin Monster #5, Crazy Klutch isn't how he's portrayed by the parents. The strip is constructed like a shaggy dog story, ending different from what is expected.

As smart and good a writer as Stanley was I can't figure out him spelling daisies as "daisys".